


Unconditionally

by mckvch (RaiseYourVoice)



Series: Tumblr prompts [47]
Category: Shadowhunters (TV), The Bane Chronicles - Sarah Rees Brennan & Cassandra Clare & Maureen Johnson, The Mortal Instruments Series - Cassandra Clare
Genre: Age Regression/De-Aging, Canon Divergence, Cuddling & Snuggling, De-Aged Raphael, Happy Ending, Light Angst, Love Confessions, M/M, Magical Accidents, Raphael is a Little Shit, Sharing Clothes, Sharing a Bed, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, Tumblr Prompt, Zoo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-09
Updated: 2017-10-01
Packaged: 2018-11-12 03:48:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 8,145
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11153604
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RaiseYourVoice/pseuds/mckvch
Summary: “You should probably keep the furball away from your potions from now on,” Simon suggested, shaking his head, and he was about to let go of Raphael and stand up again but a pair of shorts arms wrapped around the back of his neck and refused to let go.“Wanna go home,” the boy mumbled against Simon’s chest, suddenly sounding suspiciously sleepy and like he was about to doze off. The fledgeling sighed and, seeing as he couldn’t get rid of this little limpet right now, he simply lifted Raphael off the ground and placed him on his hip. Fortunately, his vampire strength made it easy to carry the boy - human Simon would probably start struggling to carry the kid's weight after a minute.“Believe me, I will,” the warlock said with a grimace before he conjured up a portal with a few elegant, fluent movements of his hands. “I will get in touch when I have it figured out. Until then, please take good care of him, okay?”Simon couldn’t help but smile at these words and as much as Magnus always tried to play it cool and joke around, he clearly cared a damn lot about Raphael and the fledgeling could definitely appreciate that, despite Magnus usually always teasing him.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> _I read 1 or 2 saphael OS where, Simon becoming a child (physically and mentally) because of bad manipulation of Magnus Potion. So i want something like that but where Raphael becoming a child (3, 4 years max), physically and mentally, but he remember evrything (vampire, who is who etc...) and of course the clan, specially Simon take care of him at the hotel (not betray, no season 2). Magnus find remede at the end._
> 
> I didn't mean for this to get so out of hand but I had a little too much fun writing this story and I really hope it turned out well because I'm kind of happy with the result :D

“Baby!”

Simon stopped in the middle of Magnus’s loft, his eyes wide while they stared at a little boy with big, dark brown eyes and an almost black mop of unruly curls. Said boy was currently pointing at him and the fledgeling had no clue why this boy that was 4 years old at the most was calling _him_ a baby when, in fact, the kid was pretty close to being one himself.

“No, I’m a grownup,” he replied a little distractedly, not quite sure why this tiny human had something incredibly familiar about him. The eyes, the hair, the faint scar on the left cheek, the oddly formal clothes, the tiny fangs poking out between pouty lips…

“Oh G--” He choked at His name once again, still not able to speak it again, but that was definitely the least of his problems right now. “MAGNUS!!”

“I’m guessing you noticed our little dilemma,” the warlock said while showing up from the next room but while his words sounded like a weird mix of amusement and boredom, his expression was clearly worried if not a little bit flustered.

“ _Our_ dilemma? More like _your_ dilemma! What the hell did you--How did this-- _Why is Raphael a baby?!_ ”

“I’m no baby, I’m a big boy!” The tiny clan leader interrupted and stomped his foot before clumsily crossing his arms in front of his chest, glaring up at Simon. His angry eyebrows were definitely on point, even in this body, but the round eyes and full cheeks didn’t exactly make him look anything close to intimidating.

“I didn’t do anything. Chairman Meow knocked a few of my potions over and some of it must have spilt into Raphael’s drink without us noticing. It was a series of unfortunate events, an accident, and I’m already trying to figure out a way to turn him back into his slightly taller and a little more mature self,” the warlock explained while Simon’s expression grew more incredulous by the second.

“Wait, that means you don’t know how to reverse this? How long will it take for you to figure that out and what are we going to do with him in the meantime??”

This was by far the strangest thing Simon had ever experienced - which was saying something because he had witnessed a lot of weird things in his lifetime already, most of them had happened to him personally. He was about to ask the warlock how something like this could even happen - what kind of portions did Magnus have lying around here? - when he felt a tiny hand grab his and tug on his fingers to get his attention.

“Simon, can we go home? I wanna go home,” the mini Raphael pleaded and his puppy eyes were only enhanced by his long, dark lashes. Simon felt personally offended by how incredibly adorable this child version of his clan leader was and he had to resist the urge to pinch the boy’s chubby cheeks.

“I don’t think we can go home because Magnus has to fix you first,” Simon replied and sighed when the tugging got more insistent, Raphael trying to drag him towards the door but failing because he didn’t have the necessary strength. The fledgeling felt bad for a short burst of smugness about the fact that, for once, he was the one with the upper hand. Sadly that it was only the case when Raphael was a damn child.

“I don’t wanna be fixed. I wanna go hoooome,” the boy whined, jutting his bottom lip out and pouting at Simon whose heart felt like it was melting into a puddle of goo at the sight.

“Maybe that’s not such a bad idea. I think it might take a little while for me to find out how to reverse this,” Magnus remarked a little sheepishly and Simon’s eyes immediately snapped up to meet the warlock’s, disbelieve written all over his face.

“ _A little while_ ? What does that mean? And I can’t exactly bring him back to the hotel _like this_!” Simon’s voice was a few pitches higher than usual and cracked a little bit because this sounded like a terrible idea. He had now idea how the rest of the clan would react if they were suddenly faced with their leader barely being past the toddler stage. The sound of a pitifully hiccuped sob drew Simon’s attention back to Raphael and he noticed with rising panic that the boy’s bottom lip was trembling suspiciously, his big brown eyes filling with glistening tears.

“Simon doesn’t want me anymore,” the little boy wailed and Simon flailed helplessly when the first tears started spilling from Raphael’s eyes to roll down his cheeks. He probably should have paid more attention to the way he spoke in front of this baby version of Raphael.

“No! No, no! That’s not what I meant!” He tried to save the situation but Raphael sobbed again and stepped back from him, his little shoulders shaking and fingers curling into the hem of his suit jacket - Simon didn’t even stop to ask how it happened that his clothes had been shrunk with him because he definitely had bigger problems right now. “It might be dangerous bringing you back to the Dumort right now.”

“But I wanna--I wanna go home with Simon,” the tiny clan leader hiccuped and his face was already streaked red from his bloody tears, making the whole picture even more disconcerting. Of course, Simon had already realised that the other was still a vampire and he knew their tears were bloody, but seeing a child crying with blood on their face was admittedly terrifying. Besides the fact that seeing this version of Raphael cry simply broke his heart, especially because it was his fault.

He glanced at Magnus, hoping the warlock could help with this dilemma somehow, but the other merely shrugged and muttered an “I’m gonna call Lily and ask her” regarding bringing Raphael back to the hotel in this state before he left the room and Simon was alone with the crying Raphael.

“Come on, stop crying. I didn’t mean to upset you. Magnus will talk to Lily and maybe we can go home then, okay, buddy?”

“But you were being mean,” Raphael sobbed, rubbing his hands across his wet cheeks so his hands were smeared with bloody tears as well. “You don’t love me anymore.”

Simon’s eyes widened and he felt his cheeks warm up a little even though he was aware of the fact that Raphael didn’t mean  _that_ kind of love but platonically - everything else would just be horribly weird and wrong with the clan leader being a child at the moment. The fledgeling composed himself and knelt down in front of the boy, reaching out a hand to gently brush his thumb across Raphael’s cheek.

“Of course I still love you,” he muttered around a small lump in his throat because this definitely wasn't the scenario he had imagined to say these words to Raphael for the first time but nothing in his life ever went the way he imagined it to, “and I want to go home with you but if Lily says we can’t, then we will stay here, alright?”

“You stay with me?” Raphael sniffled, his voice small and pitiful, while he stared at Simon with watery, red-rimmed eyes and blotchy cheeks.

“I will. I won’t leave your side, Rapha,” he promised with a smile and made a small noise of surprise when he suddenly had an arm-full of sniffling clan leader because the boy basically threw himself into Simon’s arms, muttering a muffled “love you too” against his chest and the young vampire felt his chest ache with affection for this adorable being.

He had been in love with Raphael for the longest time now, had even declined Clary’s plea to help her get to Camille because he hadn’t been able to go behind the clan leader’s back like that, and even if this wasn’t _his_ Raphael, not completely, he still felt a strong wave of protectiveness towards this boy. Simon wrapped his arms around Raphael, carefully because he just seemed so fragile all of a sudden, and let the boy bury himself further into his embrace, not caring that his shirt would be stained with blood and certainly some snot as well.

“Lily said you should bring him back to the hotel and she told me she’s going to rip out my throat if I don’t get him back to normal,” Magnus announced, oddly cheerful despite the second part of the message, when he came back from his phone call with the second in command. The warlock’s lips curled into a smile when he spotted the two of them hugging. “Looks like you two get along again.”

“How long do you think it’ll take?” Simon asked and as much as he already adored this version of Raphael, he would rather have the adult and grumpier clan leader back.

“Hopefully not longer than a few days,” Magnus sighed and shrugged apologetically. “I promise I will work as fast as I can, it’s not like I wanted this to happen.”

“You should probably keep the furball away from your potions from now on,” Simon suggested, shaking his head, and he was about to let go of Raphael and stand up again but a pair of shorts arms wrapped around the back of his neck and refused to let go.

“Wanna go home,” the boy mumbled against Simon’s chest, suddenly sounding suspiciously sleepy and like he was about to doze off. The fledgeling sighed and, seeing as he couldn’t get rid of this little limpet right now, he simply lifted Raphael off the ground and placed him on his hip. Fortunately, his vampire strength made it easy to carry the boy - human Simon would probably start struggling to carry the kid's weight after a minute.

“Believe me, I will,” the warlock said with a grimace before he conjured up a portal with a few elegant, fluent movements of his hands. “I will get in touch when I have it figured out. Until then, please take good care of him, okay?”

Simon couldn’t help but smile at these words and as much as Magnus always tried to play it cool and joke around, he clearly cared a damn lot about Raphael and the fledgeling could definitely appreciate that, despite Magnus usually always teasing him.

“That’s the plan. Good luck with the antidote or however to call it.”

Simon was about to step towards the portal but paused when Magnus stepped a little closer, now directing his attention to the clearly sleepy Raphael in Simon’s arms, gently resting a hand on the boy’s messy curls to get his attention.

“You be a good boy, pumpkin, and listen to Simon,” he said softly, his fingers playfully ruffling the clan leader’s hair before he actually pressed a kiss to Raphael’s forehead when the kid nodded obediently.

“Maybe I should take my time, he’s actually quite endearing like this and a lot easier to handle, surprisingly,” Magnus joked and then made a shooing motion because he couldn’t keep the portal open forever.

Simon shook his head with a “Don’t you dare!” before hugging the small vampire in his arms a little close and then stepping through the portal that brought them right back into the lobby of the Hotel Dumort where they were immediately greeted by a way too delighted Lily and wide-eyed clan members.

* * *

“Simon. Simon!”

The young vampire groaned when he felt small hands grab his shirt and shake him, then poke and pinch his face in order to get him to wake up. He weakly swatted at Raphael’s hands, blearily remembering that it was, in fact, Raphael waking him up in the middle of the day because he had been morphed back into a child thanks to Magnus’s stupid cat.

“What is it?” Simon mumbled, still half asleep and trying to turn around to go back to sleep but Raphael had none of that, using his whole body now to shove into him.

“I need to pee,” the boy whined and Simon was too tired to even think about the ridiculousness of this whole situation, simply raising an arm to flap it in the general direction of the bathroom door in a silent prompt to _just go_. “Can you come with me? Pleeeeease! It’s so dark.”

In any other situation, Simon probably would have burst out laughing at the mere idea of Raphael, the grumpy clan leader and vampire who was able to see perfectly well even in the dark, being scared of going to the toilet on his own.

“The door is only five feet over there and the light switch is right next to it. I know you can see in the dark so just go,” Simon muttered into his pillow, his arm now hanging off the edge of the bed and part of him regretted that he had been unable to say no to Raphael when the boy had asked if he could sleep in his room, not wanting to be alone in the big master suite.

“I can see, that’s not it. But what if--what if--” Raphael’s voice started to sound a little bit watery now and Simon inwardly cursed his undead life because he didn’t have the heart to deal with a crying Raphael again-- “what if there’s... _a monster under the bed_???”

The boy whispered the last words as if he was voicing something forbidden, something that wasn’t supposed to be said out loud, and this time Simon seriously couldn’t help but snort in amusement. God, he wished to have all of this stuff on tape and shove it in Raphael’s face once he was back to normal. That would be hilarious and definitely worth all this hassle.

“That’s not funny!” The small leader cried and Simon finally pushed himself into a sitting position, blinking at the now pouting and teary eyed boy with a barely suppressed yawn.

“Alright, alright. I’ll come with and fight the monsters off. Come on,” he gave in and pushed back the blanket before swinging his legs off the bed. Raphael held his breath in anxious anticipation as if he was waiting for the imaginary monster to grab the fledgelings feet and pull him underneath the bed to have him as a snack. Of course, none of that happened and Simon blearily brushed a hand over his face while offering the other one to Raphael who immediately grabbed it, curling his fingers tightly around Simon’s as if his life depended on it.

Of course, accompanying him the five feet to the bathroom wasn’t enough and Raphael insisted on Simon coming into the bathroom with him - maybe there were monsters waiting for little boys in the toilet as well? - and the fledgeling stared intently at the tiles at the wall while the leader relieved himself. Even if this was just a kid, it was still Raphael and the whole situation was terribly awkward. When the boy was done, Simon even had to prompt him to go wash his hands.

“Simoooon??”

He had just slumped back onto the soft mattress but instead of crawling into the bed with him, Raphael kept clinging to his hand and stared at him with pleading eyes, clearly not planning to let Simon go back to sleep just yet.

The young vampire sighed deeply but figured the sooner he complied, the sooner he might be able to go back to sleep. “What is it, tiny?”

Raphael pouted at him for the nickname but then tugged at his hand in order to get Simon to get back up again.

“‘m hungry,” the boy complained, stomping his feet a little because Simon didn’t move as fast as he wanted him to. “‘m the leader, make me something!”

“Oh, so that’s how it is, huh?” Simon couldn’t help but grin because the boy clearly remembered all of these things while still having the mentality of a child.

A soft knock at the door prevented Raphael from answering and both of them looked over when the door was pushed open and a sleepy looking Lily showed up. “Is everything alright?”

“Yeah, our tiny master merely ordered me to feed him,” Simon replied with mock-seriousness and chuckled when the boy pinched his hand, glaring up at him or at least trying to.

Lily raised her eyebrows at his words but she was clearly relieved that it was nothing bad and her lips curled into a smile. “How about I take care of that? I make a mean bloody cocoa,” she offered directed at Raphael who immediately beamed up at her, nodding eagerly. Lily grinned, winking at Simon before she gestured for them to follow her downstairs into the hotel’s kitchen.

 

“Can I sit on your lap??”

Simon blinked at the boy who stood in front of him with his arms outstretched, looking at him with pleading puppy eyes and he wondered if anyone would be able to say no to this face. Someone heartless, maybe.

“You’ll be the death of me before this is over, I swear,” Simon muttered under his breath and motioned for the boy to turn around so he could tug Raphael into his lap, the kid’s back resting against his chest.

“But you’re already dead,” Raphael pointed out with a matter-of-fact voice and Simon heard Lily trying to suppress her laughter while she was mixing the bloody cocoa before placing the cup in the microwave to warm it up.

“ _Undead_ ,” he couldn’t help but correct and laughed when the boy tilted his head back a little just to roll his eyes at him. That was such a Raphael thing to do.

“Can we play hide and seek later?” Raphael asked, waggling his feet a little while his hands held on to Simon’s arm that was wrapped around his middle.

“After sundown, sure,” Simon agreed and until this was solved he would basically have to play non-stop babysitter for their leader anyway. At least this version of Raphael wanted to play some games, even if it wasn’t digital once but Simon could live with some good ol’ hide and seek. “We could ask some of the others if they want to join as well, how about it?”

“Of course! Two people would be no fun,” Raphael replied as if Simon was stupid and, admittedly, he kind of was so he didn’t argue with the boy. Simon simply rested his chin on top of the leader’s head, the incredibly soft curls tickling his throat, and caught Lily’s gaze who was fondly smiling at them.

When the drink was done and Raphael managed to drink it with a minimal amount of spilling - only on Simon’s pyjama pants, no big deal - the boy grew tired in the blink of an eye, slumping against Simon and yawning like there was no tomorrow.

“Time to get you back to bed, huh?” Simon chuckled and his chest ached because this boy was just so incredibly adorable, even more right now when he was struggling to keep his eyes open and when he was drowning in one the fledgeling's shirts - a black one with a sloppily drawn ghost and the text _I hope ghosts believe in me_. Seeing as they didn’t exactly have clothes fitting for a child in the hotel, Simon had to improvise and had simply stuffed the boy into one of his shirts for the day because it had been too late to organise something fitting already.

Raphael only made a sleepy little noise in reply, pressing his cheek against Simon’s chest and finally giving in to the exhaustion. The fledgeling shook his head fondly and easily lifted the boy up when he got up from his chair.

“How can he be so affectionate and adorable like this? I might want to keep this version if this goes on for too long,” Simon sighed and Lily chuckled, turning off the light in the kitchen when they left to head back upstairs to their respective rooms.

“I’m sure our Raphael can be just as affectionate, he simply need a little more time to get around,” she replied with a gentle voice and it felt like she knew pretty well how much Simon cared about their leader, how much he wished to be able to cuddle up like this with him. “He really cares about you, more than anyone else, you know that, right? And this weird potion may have turned him into a kid but he’s still Raphael and it’s _you_ he’s been clinging to since it happened.”

Simon supposed there was some truth in that and maybe he just needed some more sleep to keep this uncalled for frustration about his feeling in check. “Let me guess: I should probably talk to him when he’s back to normal?”

Lily patted his shoulder softly and that was all the answer he needed. Simon grimaced but his mouth still curled into an involuntary smile when Lily pressed a kiss on the sleeping Raphael’s head and then on Simon’s cheek as well before disappearing into her own room with a “Sleep well, babies.”

* * *

“Voilà, the antidote!”

Simon almost fell off the armchair he was currently lounging on while skimming through a comic book while always keeping an eye on Stan, Lily and Ethan playing Parcheesi with their shrunk clan leader. Simon had played with them before but Raphael, the little shit, was some kind of genius at the game and had basically obliterated him. Or maybe he was just overly dramatic and a sore loser. But Simon chose to believe that this kid had found a way to cheat at the game and that he had it out for him so he had forced Ethan to take his place afterwards, not willing to take another embarrassing defeat against a child that took ages to count the numbers on his dice - even though it was probably kind of impressive that he was able to count at all.

“Magnus, what the fu--dge?!” Simon complained, barely managing to correct himself when he actually felt Raphael narrowing his eyes at him. This kid was a menace, even if Simon kind of loved the little shithead anyway and refused to let him out of his sight for more than five minutes.

The warlock snorted, waving his colourfully painted nails at the clan leader who beamed at Magnus with a toothy grin, fangs on display because he didn’t get the hang of retracting them all the time, and Simon resisted the urge to grab his chest because _this little shit was unfairly adorable_.

“I’ve got the antidote ready,” Magnus repeated his earlier announcement and shook a small bottle in his hand that had a dark red, almost black coloured liquid sloshing around at the movement.

“And it only took you a week,” Simon commented but he put his comic aside and sat up properly because this was amazing news.

“Six days,” Magnus corrected with a pointedly raised eyebrow and his free hand placed on his hip, “and if you’re not being nice, I might change my mind about doing this for free.”

“As if you’d do that and leave Rapha in this state,” Simon huffed but he got up from his armchair and, for some reason, decided to draw the warlock into a slightly too firm hug. “Thank you for your help, even though he wouldn’t even be in this predicament if you had--”

“You’re very welcome, now shut up and shoo,” Magnus replied, straightening his clothes after Simon had stepped back again. The warlock knelt down, his several necklaces clinking softly through the movement. “Pumpkin, would you come here for a moment?”

That was all it took for Raphael to abandon the game he had been engrossed in, ordering the others to wait for him and not dare to cheat, before he hopped to his feet and came over, smiling happily at the warlock and squishing his small hands against Magnus’s cheeks in greeting. The warlock didn’t seem to appreciate the sentiment too much, to Simon’s endless amusement.

“I need you to drink this; could you do that, bug?” Magnus showed the little bottle to the boy and Raphael scrunched up his nose thoughtfully.

“What is it?” He poked the tip of his index finger against the glass and looked up at Magnus with questioning eyes, clearly not too eager to agree.

“Nothing bad, sweet pea, just medicine,” the warlock explained with a gentle and soothing voice, apparently thinking that telling Raphael the truth might make him disagree for some reason but Simon wasn’t going to interfere and leave it to Magnus to talk the boy into drinking the potion that would hopefully turn him back.

“But I’m not sick.”

“I know and this will help so you don’t get sick,” Magnus continued with this explanation and smiled patiently at the small clan leader who still seemed reluctant for some reason, suddenly turning around to look up at Simon with his round eyes.

“This will make me big again, won’t it?” He asked and Simon raised his eyebrows in surprise because he hadn’t expected Raphael to understand what was going on but he was clearly underestimating the boy but he had done so all week. It was probably due to the fact that Simon didn’t exactly have any experience with kids and therefore always thought Raphael wouldn’t understand a lot of things when, in fact, he was a really bright boy.

“That’s right,” Simon answered, not seeing a point in lying to Raphael when he clearly knew what was up, but now the kid looked positively upset.

“But I don’t wanna! I like being a kid. I don’t want to be a grown-up again! I wanna play games and cuddle with you and share a bed and have Lily make me cocoa when I can’t sleep,” he protested and of course, Raphael’s eyes filled with tears now, causing Simon to drop to his knees and pull the boy into a gentle hug.

“Being an adult doesn’t mean we can’t do these things anymore, Rapha. We can cuddle all you want even if you’re not a child and I’m sure Lily wouldn’t mind making cocoa for you,” Simon said with a soothing voice, his fingers carding through the boy’s unruly curls, and he hadn’t expected it to be this difficult to reverse this accident. Sure, they could have just mixed the potion into Raphael’s drink before going to bed but it simply seemed wrong to just do such a thing without the boy agreeing to it, even if the adult Raphael would probably call them stupid for this sentiment.

“Promise?” Raphael sniffled and looked up at the young vampire with wet eyes and a few red trails on his cheeks that Simon brushed away gently.

“Promise,” he replied without hesitation, offering his pinky to link it with Raphael’s and the boy actually seemed to calm down immediately, wiping the tears from his cheeks before he turned around to face Magnus again.

“Okay, I will drink it,” he announced, his voice still a little wobbly but his expression was determined.

Magnus briefly glanced at Simon, his eyes not losing any of the softness they had only regarding Raphael with so far, before he pulled the cork from the small bottle and gently held the rim to the boy’s lips. The clan leader reached for Magnus’s sleeve with one hand, curling his fingers into the fabric, but other than that he obediently tilted his head back and drank every last drop of the potion.

Simon held the breath he didn’t need anyway and he knew every other vampire in the room did the same but a few seconds passed and nothing seemed to change. Raphael blinked a few times, glancing at the fledgeling and he seemed just as confused as everyone else.

“It might take a little time to take effect, especially since he has been like this for a few days now,” Magnus said and pocketed the empty bottle again, raising his hand to rest it on top of Raphael’s head, lovingly carding his fingers through the boy’s hair. “Go back and play now, love, everything will be okay.”

Simon was almost a little jealous that Magnus could talk to Raphael like this with such ease, so much affection in his words and actions, as if the clan leader was his child and maybe, in some way, Raphael was.

“Thank you, Mags,” the replied and actually wrapped his short arms around the warlock’s neck for a clumsy hug, pressing a kiss to Magnus’s cheek as if it was the most natural thing in the world, before he bound off - back to join the unfinished game of Parcheesi.

Simon didn’t go back to reading his comic that night because he was anxiously waiting for the potion’s effect to kick in, always watching Raphael like a hawk, but sunrise drew closer and nothing happened. He let the boy convince him to carry him back upstairs after his cup of bloody cocoa, the clan leader piggybacking on Simon, with his arms curled around the fledgelings throat and yawns pressed against the nape of his neck.

Raphael insisted on wearing Simon’s shirt again when he got dressed for bed, having refused the few fitting children clothes one of the clan members had organised the second night after he had turned into a kid. He was okay with wearing the other clothes during the day but at night he _insisted_ on Simon’s way too large shirt that he could almost make a tent out of and that always slipped off his narrow shoulders on one side. Simon couldn’t find it in himself to complain about it or to try and convince Raphael otherwise because it was heartwarming to see the leader snuggled up in one of his shirts since he would probably never do that as soon as he was back to normal.

Simon felt weirdly sentimental about the prospect of having the adult Raphael back soon. On one hand, he longed to have the snarky leader back but, on the other hand, he didn’t want to let go of this cuddly version because it felt incredibly soothing to have someone to fall asleep to and wake up with, even if it was just a child. It was nice, to feel appreciated and loved unconditionally like this, to know that the affection right now was _real_ because a kid that age simply wasn’t capable of pretending otherwise.

 

When he woke up in the middle of the day, the mattress next to him empty and no trace of Raphael anywhere, his initial reaction was panic until he realised that the other was supposed to turn back into his adult form and that was probably the reason for him not being around anymore. He had probably turned back and went back to his own room because there was no reason to stay here anymore.

He felt ridiculous for tearing up about this but Simon couldn’t help it. Turning around onto his side, he curled up and tugged the blanket higher, as if it could change the fact that everything would be going back to normal now. Which was good, of course, but it also meant back to the distance between him and the clan leader except for fleeting little touches whose meaning he had never been able to pin down.

Simon brushed away the tears from the corners of his eyes when he suddenly heard the door of his room open and close, followed by the sound of naked feet hitting the wooden floor until they came to a stop right next to the bed. He expected it to be Lily but when he turned around and glanced up at the figure next to his bed, it was actually a very grown-up looking Raphael. Raphael who was actually still wearing the silly _I hope ghosts believe in me_ shirt that was fitting him perfectly well now, almost a little too snug around the shoulders.

“Rapha,” the fledgeling breathed, not even sure if the nickname was okay but the older vampire didn’t correct him. Simon could see the other’s lips twitch into the hint of a smile before he ducked his head a little bit, almost seeming bashful all of a sudden.

“I remember you promised me something before I drank that antidote,” Raphael said, his voice low and as silky as Simon remembered it being. Despite missing the smaller version of the leader, Simon felt relief wash over him at finally having the right version back now, at being able to hear this beautifully deep voice again.

“I promised something?” He asked, his brain still a mess from the rollercoaster of emotions since waking up a few minutes ago, until Simon realised what the other was referring to and a soft “oh” escaped his lips. He could see Raphael shift awkwardly and before the clan leader was able to dismiss it again, Simon found himself scooting further to the middle of the bed and making room on the side the other was standing on.

“You meant it?”

It was odd, to hear Raphael sound so raw and vulnerable while standing next to Simon’s bed in the dark room and the fledgeling scoffed softly before reaching out to curl his fingers around the other’s wrist.

“Of course I did, I meant everything I said, and now get in here before the evil monster gets you.”

Simon couldn’t hold back his laughter when Raphael groaned, realising that the younger vampire would never let any of the events of the past few days go and Simon was more than delighted to know that the other actually remembered all of that. Right now, though, he definitely didn’t feel like teasing the clan leader too much, not when he was finally able to wrap his arms around Raphael and press against his back, bury his nose in the loose curls at the back of the other’s head.

“If you meant everything...that includes you loving me?”

He was a little taken aback by the blunt question and swallowed nervously but he mustered up all of his courage to gently press his lips to the nape of Raphael’s neck while carefully resting his palm against the other’s chest.

“ _Especially_ that, yeah,” he breathed into the silence and when Raphael’s hand came to rest on his, their fingers slotting perfectly together, Simon felt like the luckiest undead guy in the whole universe and his face hurt from the wide smile tugging at the corners of his mouth.

“That’s good.”

“Is it?”

“Yeah, because I love you too, baby.”


	2. Extra

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Because it was quite a lot of fun writing de-aged Raphael, I decided to add another scene of what happened during the time he was a kid :)

“This is probably the weirdest excursion I’ve ever been on,” Simon commented with barely hidden laughter, gently tugging their child-sized clan leader closer against his side to prevent the kid from bumping into some lady that had decided to stop in the middle of the path to make an attempt at taking a picture of sleeping flamingos in the dimly lit surroundings.

“It was  _ your _ idea, fledgeling,” Stan replied with an eye roll while he unfolded the brochure in his hands, scanning the map of the area to decide where they should head first but Raphael seemed to have other plans than figuring out the most effective route.

“I wanna see the tigers,” the boy decided, tugging at Simon’s hand even if he wasn’t able to move the young vampire in his current state, his supernatural strength having shrunk together with his body and mental age thanks to the  _ potion incident _ , as Simon was referring to it in his head.

It was day three - well,  _ night _ three - of Raphael being reverted to a little kid, almost a toddler, and it had been a strange three days for the whole clan. The small leader had basically been glued to Simon’s side for most of the time, following him everywhere and seeking physical contact constantly. The daytimes were spent with Raphael wrapped around Simon like a koala and the fledgeling couldn’t even claim to mind any of it. Sure, he felt like he was on non-stop babysitting-duty but Raphael was a pretty easy child to take care of most of the time.

Things that hadn’t shrunk with Raphael’s physical and mental age, though, was his incredible stubbornness. He had woken Simon up at half past six this evening, when it was still light outside and two hours away from sundown, declaring that he wanted to go to the zoo because he had heard that it was open past its regular hours as some special event today. Simon had no idea where or when the kid had heard about this event but he had checked the correctness of it and now here they were, in the zoo, at quarter past nine and the sky had gone completely dark only a few minutes earlier. 

“Where are the tigers??” Raphael whined, still tugging at Simon’s hand and then staring up at Stan who scanned the map in the brochure quickly to figure out where exactly the tigers were kept.

“We have to go this way,” he pointed out after successfully spotting their enclosure on the map and pointed towards the path on their left and Raphael almost managed to break free and run ahead but Simon tightened his grip on the boy’s hand a little. The last thing they needed was losing their small clan leader in a damn zoo in the middle of the night.

“It’s been at least three years since I’ve been to the zoo. Who would’ve thought the next time I went would be as a vampire,” Simon commented while Raphael pulled at his hand, trying to get him to walk faster so they would finally reach their goal. The other vampires - Stan, Lily and Elliott were the ones who had tagged along - raised their eyebrows at him, clearly unimpressed by the time-span.

“The last time I was in the zoo was five decades ago,” Eliott replied and Simon’s lips formed a surprised little “o” because he honestly hadn’t considered how long it must’ve been for the others, seeing as they were vampires for quite a bit longer already.

“When I was young we couldn’t afford to go to the zoo because it was still an expensive novelty back then and my parents were poor immigrants,” Lily added her piece of information and Simon remembered her telling him that she had been turned in the 1920s. Part of him was surprised to hear that zoos had already existed at that time but then he realised how stupid that assumption had been anyway. 

Thinking about it, he was fairly sure typical zoos had been around at least since the middle or end of the 19th century, though he had never bothered to inform himself about this subject and could be completely off the mark there. Something similar to it had probably been around for much longer, though.

“Zoos like we know today didn’t even exist until after I was turned,” was Stan’s dry comment and Simon stared at him with wide eyes while even Elliott gaped at him a little bit, obviously not having realised Stan’s age either.

“Wait, how old are you??” Simon questioned now with wide eyes and the fact that Stan seemed so well-adjusted to the modern world and media honestly had him fooled that the other vampire had at least been turned in the 20th century but, apparently, that wasn’t the case. Or maybe Simon was stupid for thinking that every vampire was kind of stuck in the time they lived in, seeing as it was actually the case for a lot of the old vampires he knew.

“And why would I tell you that, fledgeling?” Stan replied with a teasing smirk and Simon knew the other wouldn’t answer his question so he pouted in lack of a better response.

“He’s 268,” Raphael’s grumpy voice suddenly interrupted them and there was an underlying tone of “can we stop this topic now and get on with it?” in his voice that had all of them snort in amusement. Of course, their kid-leader had no interest in any of this stuff, he only wanted to look at the animals and enjoy his time in the zoo, not talk about history.

“Well, you definitely don’t look your age,” Simon commented with barely hidden laughter, delighted by the fact that Raphael had completely overgone Stan’s announcement of not wanting to share his age. The older vampire simply glared at him and then at Raphael who seemed completely unfazed while tugging at Simon’s hand to get him to move a little faster towards the tigers.

When they finally reached the enclosure, their young leader pushed up on his tiptoes, squinting into the darkness in an attempt to spot the giant cats but he was clearly unsuccessful if the way he bounced unhappily on his feet was anything to go by.

“Where are they?”

Simon couldn’t help but smile softly at the boy, his heart feeling like it grew a size because it was incredibly endearing to see Raphael like this—grumpy about the fact that he was unable to spot a tiger in the matter of a few seconds. Adult Raphael always seemed incredibly patient, even with Simon, despite trying to pretend otherwise, but the child version lost all chill in the blink of an eye which was admittedly hilarious.

“Maybe they’re inside and asleep?” Eliott offered with a shrug and then raised his hands in a silent apology when Raphael’s head snapped around, glaring at him for the mere idea that they could be unfortunate enough to not see the animals.

“I want up,” the leader announced after a beat of silence and the other vampires blinked at him in confusion, not quite following what the kid was on about. Raphael bounced on the balls of his feet again, tugging at Simon’s hand while staring up at him with round, determined eyes.

“Up?” The fledgeling tilted his head with a small frown while brushing his thumb over the back of Raphael’s hand, hoping to soothe the child a little.

“Yeah,” Raphael nodded, using his free hand to point up at Simon and it took another few seconds for it to click.

“Wait, you want to sit on my shoulders??”

“That’s what I said. I want up! I’ll be able to see better.” The small clan leader nodded to himself, clearly having made up his mind about the matter, and then he managed to tug his hand free from Simon’s grip, making grabby hands at the young vampire.

Simon glanced at the others, rolling his eyes because everyone looked thoroughly amused and Stan even made a “go ahead” gesture. The fledgeling decided he would never let Raphael live this whole thing down, ever.

“Alright, alright,” he muttered with a sigh before signalling the boy to turn around. Simon bent down and grabbed Raphael around the hip, his vampire strength making it easy to lift the child up and place the boy on his shoulders.

Raphael’s legs wrapped around the side of Simon’s neck right away, heels of his feet pressed a little uncomfortably into the fledgelings chest while small fingers grabbed hold of Simon’s hair. This wasn’t exactly how Simon had ever imagined a situation with Raphael’s digging his fingers into his hair…

“You’re such a little menace,” he muttered but his lips curled into an involuntary smile at the sound of Raphael’s delighted giggle. The boy was clearly enjoying his new point of view, wriggling a little to get into a more comfortable position and Simon’s hands immediately flew up to curl around Raphael’s ankles, scared the boy would topple backwards and off his shoulders any second.

“You two are so adorable, it’s sickening,” Lily commented with a fake-disgusted expression before suddenly raising her phone and taking a photo, the flash causing Simon to squint with an unhappy little sound.

This whole thing felt like an odd game of playing house, only that Raphael was an actual child and not just playing one. The thought of adult Raphael playing the child caused Simon to snort in amusement—that was never going to happen!—and he felt the boy lightly tug at his hair in response as if Raphael was sensing that he was the source of Simon’s amusement.

“Go a little more over there, maybe I can spot a tiger from there,” Raphael prompted, pressing his heels a little further against the fledgeling’s chest to get him moving. Simon wondered if this was what horses felt like and quickly decided that he did not envy these animals for always having a human press their heels into their sides. He could imagine a more comfortable situation.

Simon moved where the little menace wanted him to go, not interested in too many heel-jabs if he could somehow avoid it, but the grumpy sound that followed from the boy told him that there were no tigers in sight still.

“I wanna see a tiger! And I wanna pet one!”

“Well, it seems like they’re hiding somewhere, probably sleeping, and you’re  _ not _ going to pet one! That’s far too dangerous!” Stan interjected with a wide-eyed expression and he clearly didn’t want their baby leader ripped into pieces by a wild animal either.

“Come on, let’s head to the next enclosure, maybe we’ll have more luck there,” Simon suggested with a soft voice, gently pressing his fingers into the boy’s ankles and tilting his head back to it bumped against Raphael’s stomach and chest.

“But the tigers—”

“I will make you a hot cocoa again when we’re back in the hotel if you’re being a good boy during this trip and listen to us, okay?” Lily interrupted Raphael’s complaint with a sweet voice, her words almost sounding a little melodic, but they seemed to work like a charm because Raphael hummed before he nodded eagerly.

“Okay. I can be a good boy!”

Simon smiled and his unbeating heart once again hurt because this version of Raphael was incredibly adorable and he kept on being torn between wanting to keep this cute kid and wanting the old Raphael back, the one he was helplessly in love with. Maybe, when all of this was over, he would somehow find the guts to finally tell Raphael about his feelings but Simon seriously doubted it. There was no way in hell that the clan leader reciprocated his feelings. 

Why would someone like Raphael fall for someone like him?

Another jab of heels into his chest interrupted Simon from spiralling down the mental path to misery lane and he blinked a little, catching Elliott's worried glance before plastering a bright smile on his face and starting to move towards the next enclosure. He wouldn’t let his dumb crush—it was more than just a crush, a voice in the back of his head reminded him—ruin this little trip to the zoo.

When, sometime later, they took a short break to drink some blood from the flasks they had brought—mostly to keep Raphael fed and happy—the small clan leader suddenly showed up in front of Simon with a bright smile and a pink wad of cotton candy on a stick in his hand. The fledgeling pointed out that they couldn’t eat real food, at least he couldn’t, not yet, but when Raphael pulled a sad face and admitted that he just wanted to cheer Simon up because he had seemed a little down, he had eaten half of the sugary treat anyway.

Simon could deal with some stomach pain and a little bit of throwing up later if it meant Raphael was happy. The cotton candy was delicious, admittedly, and the fledgeling made a mental note to ask Lily if there was a way to make a vampire-digestible version of it.

All in all, the trip to the zoo was quite the success, despite a lot of the animals being asleep and losing Raphael once because the kid had snuck off back to the tiger house on their way back, determined to finally spot one of the big felines. He had almost started crying when the other vampires had scolded him for running off but Lily had still kept her promise of making a hot cocoa back in the Dumort and Stan ended up buying a plush tiger from the souvenir shop for their leader.

At the end of the night, when Raphael was already fast asleep in Simon’s bed, curled up around the stuffed animal in one of the fledgeling’s shirts that he insisted on wearing in bed, Simon had sneakily taken a picture of the adorable view. The photo may or may not have ended up being the background picture of his phone later.


End file.
